David Martin Files Trail Report for Ski Beech on December 7th, 2007

I figured my wife and I would be among the first to ski Beech for the 2007 season. Looking at this from one perspective they have done an amazing job of opening today after just starting their snow blowing only a few days ago. From the comparison side (comparing with Sugar or Appalachian) they didn’t compare. After making a half day of it we drove over to Sugar and there was just a huge difference in conditions. There’s something to said for Sugar making snow whenever possible and Beech waitin’ so long to start.

There was already a bunch of mud coming up by lunch and I took some pics of the tracks left behind by the groom job earlier. I figured skinc wouldn’t use them so I went to post them on the messageboard but noticed someone had beat me to it. All in all it was just an okay day and I’m sure beech will say that we should have expected less since they just started making snow, but I read on their website on Tuesday, December 4 the following.

It is Tuesday, December 04, 2007, and snow making is in progress. We fired up our snow making system yesterday afternoon to begin covering some of our slopes with a blanket of snow. We do not have a planned opening day scheduled at this time. Our intention is to establish a good base of snow on the slopes that we are covering right now, and when we are able to produce enough snow to open with good, consistent conditions and coverage, then our plan is to start the 2007-2008 ski season. We are looking forward to the new season, and we are looking forward to seeing you on the slopes soon.

It just seems they changed their minds and opened with inconsistent conditions and not much of a base. I noticed several on the message boards were saying the same thing.

<Photo from this Sat, Dec 8:

Editors Note: We had several people write much the same trail report and we are not going to post them all. While we love the pro-active approach that Appalachian and Sugar take year in and year out, we have to defend Ski Beech for a second and say that they answer to a different boss and they wrote to us early on that they were doing the same wait and see game that many other ski areas in the Southeast played by not making snow or opening til later.

They pulled the trigger on Tuesday in hopes that the weather would hold and probably planned on not opening on Friday, December 7th. In other words they probably planned on making more snow before opening but after the weather pattern changed up and with the mild temps that are forecasted for all next week, went ahead and opened. In this business you play the cards you’re dealt.

For those who will unquestionably write us that "all of the ski areas are having difficulties with the weather thus far", we have posted this photo from this morning at Appalachian. No, their conditions don’t compare favorably with Sugar’s or App’s at this stage, but they were operating under a different gameplan. Give them a break and let’s see how things compare at the Holidays or into the first of the year.

Mike is the Editor and founder of SkiSoutheast.com, SkiNC.com and ResortCams.com. Since September 1996 he has posted close to 14,000 posts, articles, photos and videos promoting all of the ski areas of North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland.Mike is the father of four daughters, is an avid skier and enjoys golf, tennis, kayaking and hiking in the mountains. Winter snowsports and Summer boating on Watauga Lake are among his favorite pastimes.

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